Green Bay doctor sharing life-saving skills with surgeons in Bolivia

GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — A Green Bay doctor is saving lives across northeast Wisconsin and sharing that gift with surgeons in South America.

Prevea’s Dr. Erin Stevens is packing for Sucre this weekend, and even though she’s made the trip before, she says this one is special, because it’s Solidarity Bridge’s 25th year.

“This is from our first trip to Bolivia it’s actually one of the only pictures I have of myself operating,” Dr. Stevens shared while talking about her work in South America.

Dr. Erin Stevens

Dr. Stevens is an Obstetrician Gynecologic Oncologist, and she’s sharing her surgical expertise through Solidarity Bridge.

That’s a partnership of doctors who are dedicated to teaching other medical professionals in under-served regions like Bolivia.

Doctors like Stevens are able to perform potentially life-saving procedures that many North American cancer patients might take for granted.

Dr. Erin Stevens

“I get to go down there and teach them the techniques they need that they can build on year after year. This will be my fourth year, and I’m really excited to see where they’ve come,” Dr. Stevens said.

It’s Solidarity Bridge’s 25th year, and Dr. Stevens says she’s looking forward to gifting the surgeons in Bolivia a laparascopic training box, like the one she used to learn minimally invasive surgery—also known as keyhole surgery.

“So, these are all set up in the same places we would put ports for surgery, so that they’re able to you know get used to the hand motions, get used to the arm motions, get used to the position you need to be in in the operating room; and that’s so huge to get used to these motions because they’re not inherently normal motions for surgeons to use. You’re twisting your wrist, you’re grabbing things, you’re pulling, but you’re doing it with a really long extender at the end of everything that you’re operating with,” Dr. Stevens explained while showing what one of these training boxes looks like.

Dr. Erin Stevens

Dr. Stevens says after cheering on the Packers Sunday at Lambeau, she’s boarding a plane for Chicago, flying to Bolivia, and then traveling to Sucre.

That’s a city in the country’s southern highlands where she’s already scheduled to perform nine potentially life-saving surgeries, which doctors there will shadow to learn from Dr. Stevens.

Dr. Erin Stevens

“Being able to watch a team of surgeons go from learning surgical skills to being able to perform surgery proficiently by themselves has been a really exciting thing,” Dr. Stevens said.

Dr. Stevens says the language barrier in Bolivia and lack of resources she takes for granted in her Green Bay operating room make the week-long trip a challenge, but she says she’s always up for it.

“Thankfully, us as humans are the same on the inside regardless of where we are. So, there’s a little bit of magic when you put the laparoscope in, and you take a deep breath, and you say, “It all looks the same,”” Dr. Stevens added.

Dr. Erin Stevens

Dr. Stevens says she’s able to pay her own way to Bolivia, but she did sign up to be a bridge builder this year since it’s Solidarity Bridge’s 25th year.

That means Dr. Stevens is helping to raise money that will be used to pay for medical equipment that she will use to perform these life-saving surgeries.